Sermon: After the Feast—The Importance of Christian Growth

Why is it important that we continually grow and develop spiritually?

Presented by Lyle Welty
Cincinnati, Ohio - October 17, 2009 (58 minutes)

Download Video: Broadband | Dial-up
Download Audio: MP3

Sermon Transcript

Typically God's people return home from the Feast of Tabernacles in high spirits, excited and inspired. We have had the opportunity to travel, fellowship for eight days with brethren, hear good messages focusing our minds on the wonderful world tomorrow, the bright future that God has in mind for us as well as for all people. And we hope that those who were not able to attend the Feast were also able to recharge their spiritual batteries as well, to be benefited from the Feast, to experience some of the same encouragement and excitement that we were able to experience while being at the Feast.

Now that we're home, settling back into our routines, isn't it interesting, how many things we forget once we get out of our routine? It's like we have to be retrained, oh yes, do this on the Sabbath, it's amazing! I don't know whether it's just because Margie's getting older or...no, it's me who forgot, not Margie, I was picking on her! But now that we're back from the Feast, back into our routines, is there something that we can experience, or should be experiencing in our Christian lives that can match the encouragement and the excitement that we had at the Feast? If there is, what would that be? There may be more than one answer to the question, but here's one to consider: it is exciting and encouraging and inspiring when we see ourselves grow, when we see ourselves growing spiritually, we see ourselves overcoming, changing, maturing, making progress. But it is inspiring when we begin to see some positive changes taking place in our lives.

Have you and I experienced that sort of excitement in our lives, of realizing, we're changing, we're making some progress, hopefully we all have. Can we look back a year or two years or five years or maybe to the time we were baptized and realize we're different now than we were, that we honestly can say, I'm a different person than I was when I was first baptized, that I understand more about God's way of life, I think differently, my life is different, my attitudes are different, I've come to understand some of my weaknesses and made some progress in overcoming them, I'm more like Jesus Christ than I was and I can see the fruit of God's holy spirit in my life. If we can honestly say that, then it's going to be exciting and encouraging to see those changes in our lives because Christian growth is a very important topic, it's important to God and it should be important to us. It is critical that we understand it as well as experience growth. If for some reason we haven't been growing, maybe we've been in a slump, or haven't been growing enough, there's no reason we can't begin to turn that around and change.

In the sermon today we want to take a look at several concepts about the subject of Christian growth. Hopefully reviewing this subject will motivate us to put out even more effort to experience the exciting and rewarding part of our life, of seeing us overcome and grow.

For the first point about our Christian growth, we want to ask the question, Why is it important that we continually grow and develop spiritually? Why? Turn to Hebrews 2:5. During the Feast we focused on the coming 1,000 year rule of Jesus Christ, the wonderful world tomorrow, the world to come, we'll read more about this world to come here in Heb. 2:5, I think it's a scripture familiar to many of us but it fits in the setting here and has very good application for us to make a point.

Heb. 2:5 — For He (referring to God) has not put the world to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels.

After Jesus Christ returns and sets up His government on this earth, the earth will not be ruled by angels. Today the unseen rulers of this world are evil angels, Satan and his demons, we review that fact every Day of Atonement. But the world tomorrow will not be ruled by either righteous angels or evil angels, instead the world will be ruled by Jesus Christ and we will be ruling with him. The next verses remind us that our destiny is to rule. Notice:

V. 6-8 — But one testified in a certain place, saying: "What is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that you take care of him? You've made him a little lower than the angels, you've crowned him with glory and honor, you've set him over the works of Your hands, you have put all things in subjection under his feet." That's a reference to authority and ruler ship. For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we are not yet to see all things put under him.

We won't turn to the scriptures that specifically teach us that we will be teaching and ruling over cities in the world tomorrow, but we read many of those scriptures during the Feast. The point is, our calling, our purpose in being called is to rule, to govern, to teach in the world tomorrow and that is a very real goal, that's reality, we're really going to rule and that means we have to be prepared to rule.

When you and I were first baptized, for those of us who are baptized, at that time of our baptism, we were not ready by any means, ready to rule cities in the world tomorrow. The bible in fact calls us babes or babies in Christ, spiritually we were babies. You know the physical realm in our world today; it would be ridiculous to imagine a baby or a child ruling over a city wouldn't it? Imagine a five year old governing Cincinnati or being the governor of Ohio! You know we'd laugh at the idea of a five year old running the city of Cincinnati, it might make a good comedy, movie sometime but in reality that doesn't make any sense at all, it wouldn't happen. The child does not have the education or training, the wisdom, the experience to know how to do the job. But after several decades of training and education and growth, that same person who was a little child, after several decades could grow to the place where he could, he or she could govern the city of Cincinnati, could be its mayor.

The same way a newly baptized Christian is nowhere near ready to be a ruler in the kingdom of God. He or she doesn't yet have the spiritual training, the wisdom, the knowledge, the experience, the judgment, the character to know how to do the job. A lot of growing, a lot of learning is necessary. It's vitally important that we all grow spiritually because Jesus Christ cannot give a job to us that we're not prepared to handle, He won't do that. We start out our Christian lives with a lot of misinformation, Satan's influence, Satan's nature in our lives, we have a lot to unlearn, to overcome don't we? We have to change, we have to continually be growing, to become more like Jesus Christ in order that we can rule. Christ of course is perfectly qualified to rule, we have room to grow. Let's go next to I Peter 4:17. It's important that we remember this physical life in which we live, that everything that we experience and go through is intended for us to learn, to grow, it's an opportunity for us to grow spiritually, we should be using every day of our lives to prepare for the job ahead of us of ruling in God's family. And here in I Peter 4:17 we see that God is carefully watching us, working with us, watching us right now in this life to see if we're growing and preparing for the job of ruling in His kingdom. Notice:

I Peter 4:17 — For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God: and if it begins with us first, what will the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?

But it's the first part of that verse that we want to focus on because it's telling us the members of God's house, that is God's Church, we are being judged now, right now as we live and judgment, it's important for us to understand, judgment involves more than just a final decision at the end of our lives, judgment as it's applied here, it's talking about a process of evaluation, God observes and evaluates and watches over us for a period of time- a long period of time in some cases — it takes place, it starts when we're first baptized and it continues throughout our Christian lives until we either die or until Christ returns, whichever comes first, it's a process of evaluation, to see whether we're being prepared for responsibility in the kingdom of God.

It's interesting in this verse to notice how this verse is set, the context. The context is trials and sufferings that Christians experience, we're expected to handle our trials and tests and problems in a way that produces spiritual growth in us. God is evaluating how we're growing each and every day. Victor Frankel, a well known Holocaust survivor wrote this, he said, "What man actually needs is not attention-less state (in other words, man doesn't need a problem free life) but rather the striving and struggle of some goal worthy of him." That's really quite an insight. What we've been given is the most worthy goal imaginable, ruling with Jesus Christ in the world tomorrow, I can't imagine a more worthy and honorable goal than that. That goal should motivate us to want to grow, to realize the need to grow and to grow through our difficulties and the challenges that life presents.

This year's Feast DVD, I'm sure those of us who had the opportunity to see it, really enjoyed it and benefited from it, it reminded us of our need to grow in Christian character in spite of our trials. We saw some very inspiring examples in that presentation and in the DVD, Mr. Kilough read the scripture about how the kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the holy spirit and that should remind us that we're constantly being tested to see if we're producing fruits in every circumstance, including our trials.

Now is our time for judging, being judged, now is our time for being tested. God is evaluating and looking for growth in our lives. It should help us to appreciate our calling and to understand God's plan when we think about those especially who are not being called at this time, who are living a physical life but have no idea of the purpose for it.

Our sixteenth President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, was just such an example. As a young man Lincoln read and studied the bible, he believed in God, he believed the bible was true, he thought a lot about what he read in the bible, he read it but he thought about it. But it left him with a lot of questions, he had questions about sin, questions about salvation, questions about heaven, questions about hell. Here's what one of Lincoln's biographers wrote: "Lincoln asked himself, since death was his final destination, what was the meaning of life? What was the meaning of his life? Why should one strive when all that awaited one was a coffin? Was it because God willed that one should strive? Yes, but toward what end?" This was Lincoln's question, his thinking. "And the more Lincoln brooded about such things, the more withdrawn he became, so lost in intensity of thought that he wore ideas threadbare. Beset with anxieties and with questions for which there were no final answers. Lincoln would often sink into deep depression that might plague him for days."

There are final answers to his questions and we are privileged to understand those answers, the answers to the questions that tortured a young Abraham Lincoln. What would Lincoln have given to understand what you and I understand? To have the opportunity we have to understand this purpose in life and to be working toward it. What peace of mind it would have given him. Our first point was to ask why is it important that we grow. And the answer is, to be ready, trained and prepared to rule in the World Tomorrow.

Our second point is closely related to the first in that, it's this — God expects us to grow, in fact He requires us to grow, it's not optional. There are a number of scriptures we could turn and read, we'll begin in Matthew 25:14. This records a parable of what's called The Parable of the Talents. Now the word "talent" needs some explanation because in the parable it's used in a way that we don't usually use it, normally in our English language today. A talent was a certain weight or measure of gold or silver or some precious metal, it was a weight, like ounces or pounds or tons.

Matt. 25:14 — For the kingdom of heaven is a like a man traveling to a far country who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. So Jesus Christ is the man in the parable and we are his servants.

V. 15 — And to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on his journey. Each one was given a different amount of money.

V. 16 — Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them and made another five talents. So this servant doubled his money, the picture is, he grew spiritually.

V. 17 — And likewise, he who had received two talents gained two more also. The second servant also doubled his money, he grew spiritually.

V. 18 — But he who had received one, went and dug in the ground and hid his lord's money. After a long time...and God does give us time to grow...the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.

V. 20 — So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying,  "Lord, you delivered to me five talents, look I've gained five more talents besides." The Lord said to him, "Well done, good and faithful servant, you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler...notice...I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord." Notice again that the reason we must grow is to be trained and prepared to rule.

V. 22 — He also who had received two talents came and said, "Lord, you delivered to me two talents, look I've gained two more talents beside them." His lord said to him, "Well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things, enter into the joy of the Lord."

These two servants were different in that they had been given different amounts of money at the start, but they both doubled their talents, they doubled the amount of money, both grew spiritually to the same proportion and Jesus was pleased with both servants and spoke the same words of encouragement to them, they were both rewarded with ruler ship over many things it says. That should be very encouraging to us because God will be perfectly fair when He rewards us for our spiritual growth. All of us who are baptized have been given God's holy spirit but we've all had different circumstances in life, some of us have grown up in the Church, others weren't called until late in life, some of us have had a good start in life, with a happy stable home and family, others have not. We've had different amounts of education and opportunities and different talents and gifts given to us. God takes all of that into account and rewards fairly for each persons growth according to his or her unique situation. This parable should prod us, prod us to avoid the mistake of comparing our self with other people. The servant with the five talents did not waste his time or energy by comparing himself with the one with two talents or the one talent - there is no indication of comparison there. Each of those two servants put his energy into using what he had to the best of their ability. They grew as much as they possibly could and that's a good example for us. We'll continue in verse 24 of Matthew 25 because we have one more servant to notice.

V. 24 — Then he who had received the one talent came and said, "Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, gathering where you have not scattered seed and I was afraid and went and hid your talent in the ground, look, there you have what is yours."

The servant did not grow at all, not even a little bit. You have to wonder did he really believe it would be acceptable to his master to not grow at all? But do we also minimize in our minds our need to grow? Are we satisfied just to be baptized?

V. 26 — But his lord answered and said to him, "You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not gathered seed. Jesus described this person who did not grow spiritually as being wicked and lazy, unwilling to put out intense effort to live God's way and to build Godly character.

V. 27 — Christ said, "So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers and at my coming I would have receive back my own with interest. Therefore take the talent from him and give it to him who has ten talents, for everyone who has, more will be given and he will have an abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away."

The servant who didn't grow, lost what he had been given and he lost his potential reward as well, he was not given ruler ship over anything. If that's not bad enough, we see in Verse 30 that the person who did not grow at all also lost his eternal life.

V. 30 — And cast the unprofitable servant into outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. That's referring to the final death in the lake of fire.

It's a lot of losing out, isn't it, for the servant who did not grow, losing what he had been given in his physical lifetime, losing his opportunity to serve in the kingdom of God, losing his life forever. Some churches of the world teach that all a person needs to do is accept Christ and he'll be saved, there's no need for obedience or growth, some say Jesus has already done it all. This parable shows that's not true and shows how dangerous that teaching is. Growth is necessary. The bible makes it clear that God expects and requires His people to change, to grow — earlier in the same chapter; Matthew 25 is a parable of the ten virgins. Mr. Pulliam referred to that in the sermonette, we're not going to read that, I think we're familiar with it but it's another reminder of the need to grow because five of the virgins were wise, they had grown spiritually, they were ready and prepared when Christ returned, they were ready to rule with Christ. The other five were foolish, they were unprepared, they lost out just as the unprofitable servant did. Let's go next to Revelation 2:7, once again we'll see in the scriptures that growth is required of Christians, it's not just enough to know the truth, it's not just enough to be baptized, to have God's spirit, growth is a requirement. Revelation comes at the very end of the bible and generally at the end of the book it's very memorable because it kind of completes the whole story and ties up all the loose ends. We're given a lot of important information here in the book of Revelation, including some very direct instruction to us as God's people.

Rev. 2:7 — "He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches...chapters 2 and 3 of the book of Revelation, there's seven letters of warning and instruction and promises given to the church and as Christians, we're to take each one of these lessons, each one of these principles, each one of these letters to heart...to him who overcomes...in other words, to the person who grows and develops spiritually....to him who overcomes I will give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God."

Each of the seven letters that God included in the book of Revelation, the words are included after every letter to say, "He who overcomes..." or "To him who overcomes..." When God says something once in the bible we're suppose to take that seriously, God doesn't waste words, but when He repeats something seven times He's making a strong point isn't He? That growth is not optional, that God expects and requires us to overcome.

Our third point about growth is that God gives growth. God gives the growth. We have our part to do and we'll talk about that a little later but God is the only one who is able to produce spiritual growth in our lives. Let's go to Mark 4:26. There's a short parable here that's found only in the book of Mark. It's sometimes referred to as a parable of the growing seed. Spiritual growth is a miracle, something produced only by God. It's such a miracle, it's a similar miracle, it's much like the miracle of physical growth in the physical world.

Mark 4:26 — And He said, "The kingdom of God is like a man as if a man should scatter seed on the ground and should sleep by night and rise by day and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how."

A human being can plant the seed but he doesn't have any power to make it sprout, to grow roots, to draw nutrients through those roots and to grow. We have no power to do that, human beings cannot even fully understand how it takes place; how the growth process happens, let alone cause it to happen, we don't even understand it. I remember my dad teaching me this lesson when I was a little boy. I was about five or six years old, I still remember the occasion, the exact field in fact. It was always a thrill to ride on a tractor with my dad as a kid. He was planting corn in this particular field, I watched him fill the planter boxes with seed corn and with fertilizer, I was too young to be of any help so I just kind of stayed out of his way and let him work. But a week or so later he took me back to the very same field that we had planted and by that time the corn had sprouted and it was shooting through the ground, it was maybe an inch or so tall, the leaves had not sprung out, it was just shoots coming out, green shoots, but you could see the outline of the rows. And I remember my dad saying to me, "Farmers are in business with God, our job is to plant the seeds and God makes them grow." Even as a kid that made an impression on me. Notice verse 28 here in Mark 4.

V. 28 — "For the earth yields crops by itself...the growth is something God has programmed into the physical creation, God is the one who produces the growth and by the same token, no human being has the ability to produce spiritual growth and growth of Godly character — God produces the growth...first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head."

This verse also reminds us that our spiritual growth, like the growth of a physical plant is a process that takes place over time, it takes time. We may not always be aware of the spiritual growth day by day, sometimes it's very gradual, but we should be able to evaluate our lives over time such as from one Feast to another, from one Passover to another, we should be able to see some progress, see some growth. The fact that God Himself produces the growth in us should be very encouraging, that it's God working in us, should give us a lot of confidence and hope that God is working with us. That means that there is no excuse for failure to grow. I'd like to read a few sentences from William Barclay's Commentary on this parable we read in the book of Mark. Barclay said, "Nature's growth is inevitable, there's nothing so powerful as growth. A tree can split a concrete pavement with the power of growth. A weed can push its green head through an asphalt path, nothing can stop growth."

That's true of our spiritual growth also, as long as we are diligently and faithfully and conscientiously doing our part, God is always faithful to do His part, which is getting the growth. When He sees that we're serious about doing our part, God responds and causes growth to take place. Let's go to Philippians 1:6, this ties in so well with the parable we just read, but it's also a very encouraging point, I hope you've marked this scripture in your bible, I certainly have in mine, it's a very encouraging scripture.

Phil. 1:6 — Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you...that is, building Godly character in our lives, producing growth...will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

When God starts to work in our lives, He's going to continue to work as long as we're cooperating. We can put our trust in God to produce growth in our lives; it should give us peace of mind, hope, as well as encouragement. God knows exactly where and how each one of us needs to grow, what areas and He's ready to work with us and prepare us and develop us for the responsibilities that He has in mind for us in the kingdom of God and He's fully capable of bringing growth in our lives, we can trust Him to develop us as long as we're doing our part. Let's go next to I Cor. 3:5, it's important for us to clearly see that it's God who gives the growth. This is another scripture that makes the point clear that God is the one who gives the growth. The context, the setting here...in fact verse 4 is talking about how Paul said various members in the church in Corinth, some said, "Look I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos..." but notice verse 5:

I Cor. 3:5-6 — Who then is Paul? And who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed as the Lord gave to each one. I planted...in other words, Paul started the church in Corinth...Apollos watered...later Apollos helped care for the congregation. But notice the last part of verse 6...but God gave the increase. God's the one who gave the growth.

V. 7 — So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters...in other words, the one who plants the seed, the one who waters it is nothing in comparison to God because, as the verse goes on to say...but God gives the increase.

I'll re-read verses 6-7 in the New Revised Standard Version.

V. 6 — I planted, Apollos watered but God gave the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

So if God is the one who gives the growth, then what is our part? What's our responsibility? And that brings us to the next point. (Fourth)

Our part in our spiritual growth is to supply the effort or the work. We put out diligent effort to obey and to serve God, when God sees our efforts, then He responds and brings about the growth. The more our efforts are sincere and diligent and consistent and effective, the more God steps in and gives growth to us. The parable of the seed that we read just a little earlier makes it clear that the growth will not take place without effort on our part. In the parable, the crops sprouted and grew but not on their own, they had to be planted and then God caused them to grow, gave the growth. First, before there can be any growth, the farmer had to do his work, put out the effort, planting the seed. If the farmer had not done his part by planting the seed, there would have been no growth and no harvest. In a similar way though, God is fully able and willing to produce growth in our lives but they'll be no growth until we do our part, until we put out our effort, until we work, by obedience to God. Let's go next to II Peter 1:2. Peter's second letter, here we'll see one of the many sections of scripture that make it clear that we must work if we're going to experience growth in our Christian lives. This is one of the clearest sections explaining we have to work.

II Pet. 1:2 — Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. As His divine power is given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue. Notice this, God's divine power that gives us all things including our growth and godly character.

V. 4 — By which He's given to us exceeding great and precious promises that these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that's in the world through lust.

I'm going to re-read verse 4 in the New Living Translation:

V. 4 — And by that same mighty power He has given us all of His rich and wonderful promises, He's promised that you will escape the decadence all around you caused by evil desires and that you will share in His divine nature.

Sharing in God's divine nature means becoming like God, thinking, acting, living the way God would, in every circumstance of our life, building Godly character. Do we consider this promise that God gives us, of sharing His divine nature with us, do we consider that, as Peter wrote, precious and a very great promise? God is ready to do His part and if there is a weak link in the chain, it's never God, it's us. It's the individual Christian who is not doing his part. Let's continue here in verse 5 of II Peter 1, to see that we have, clearly, our part to do.

V. 5 — But also for this very reason, giving all diligence...in other words, make every effort Peter is saying, work hard at it, do your best...add to your faith virtue...now notice that something we must do, it's not something God does, we are told to add to your faith virtue...add to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self control...and so much of overcoming revolves around the principle and the matter of self control...to self control, perseverance, to perseverance, godliness, to godliness, brotherly kindness, to brotherly kindness, love. Each of these things we're told here to do requires a lot of thought and effort on our part.

V. 8 — For if these things are yours and abound, you will neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In other words we'll be growing and overcoming, but it doesn't automatically happen, doesn't happen automatically just because we're baptized or because we're in the Church. It doesn't happen automatically apart from our effort, it requires work and focused energy and effort to do our part.

V. 9 — For he who lacks these things is short sighted, even to blindness and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins, therefore brethren, be even more diligent...it's talking about hard work on our part, effort...to make your call and election sure for if you do these things...God won't do them for us...you will never stumble, for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Here are some very positive promises and verses, as long as we're motivated and willing to do our part, God will certainly do His. No one else can do this work for us, no one else can prevent us from growing, it's a personal responsibility, no circumstance can stop us from growing, it's up to each one of us to decide how much work, how much effort, how much energy we put into our Christian lives and as a result, how much growth God will give.

What's involved with our efforts and our work? What are we talking about here? In general, we could say that our efforts are directed toward putting God first in our lives. Putting Him at the center of our lives, focusing on Him throughout the day, putting out every effort throughout the day to live by every word of God. We do that one thought at a time, one action at a time throughout each day, day after day. Next let's go to I Peter 2, we were in II Peter, now we're going to go further ahead to I Peter 2:1 — same author, first letter instead of the second letter.

I Pet. 2:1 — Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy and evil speaking...notice it said, laying aside, these are things we must do...as newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word...that's talking about God's word, the Bible...that you may grow thereby.

Babies have an appetite for milk and they let us know when they're hungry and when they want to be fed. We hear some very loud cries from some very tiny babies when they're hungry! As babies are fed, they grow, don't they? No matter how long we've been converted, how long we've been in the Church, we should still have a strong appetite for God's word, for daily bible study so we can continue to grow. We grow as we put out effort to live by every word of God, so what follows that? We have to study our bibles faithfully, to know what God expects of us, what He requires, what He commands of us. The work we're expected to do would include bible study and meditation, prayer and fasting, obedience, following the example of Jesus Christ as we go about our daily lives. Let's go next to Revelation 3:14. We want to ask ourselves a sobering question here. This is a letter written to the Laodicea church, and I'm sure when I mention Laodicea, there's somewhat of an emotional reaction that occurs in our minds when we think of Laodicea church, not good memories here, this is a lukewarm congregation, it's a letter we're told to read and to apply to ourselves, just like the other six letters. Notice what it says:

Rev. 3:14 — And to the angel of the church in Laodicea, write: "These things say the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: I know your works...God is consistently evaluating our works, the effort we put into our Christian lives...that you are neither cold nor hot, I could wish that you were cold or hot, so then because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth." A better translation would be, "I am about to vomit or spit you out of My mouth." But it's verse 17 we want to focus on:

V. 17 — "Because you say, 'I am rich, have become wealthy and have need of nothing and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked.'"

A Christian who thinks that he or she has need of nothing will be a person who does not have a strong sense of a need to grow. I doubt that a lukewarm person would actually say those words, "I don't need to grow, I'm fine just as I am" I don't think any of us would say that, but isn't that what it really boils down to? If you or I do not have a burning desire to grow, doesn't that mean to one degree or another, we're lukewarm? If we could see ourselves as God sees us, I think every one of us would take the approach of saying, I've got a lot to overcome, I've got a lot of growing to do and I don't have a lot of time in which to do it, I don't want to waste a single day, I want to put out all the effort I can so that God can speed up the process of spiritual growth in my life. We'd have a sense of urgency about our growth. How often are we concerned about our need to grow? Drop down to verse 19:

V. 19 — "As many as I love I rebuke and chasten, therefore be zealous and repent."

Wonder where the bible gives us a warning, as it has here, about a lukewarm attitude, I think it's a good idea to assume that we need the correction. It's safer to assume that we do indeed have some lukewarm tendencies, even if we don't see them in ourselves; it's a lot safer way of thinking. It would be tragic to think, Oh I'm not a lukewarm Christian, this is a warning I don't need to be concerned about, that would be dangerous wouldn't it? Notice verse 20:

V. 20 — "Behold, I stand at the door and knock, if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with Him and he with Me."

Notice that Jesus said He stands at the door and knocks, He doesn't break the door down, He doesn't come charging in, He waits for us to listen, to hear the knock, then we open the door, waiting for us to respond, waiting to respond to things we read in the bible. To relate this verse to the subject of our spiritual growth, do we spend a lot of time thinking about our spiritual condition? Do we evaluate or monitor ourselves about how are we really doing, honestly? We wake up in the morning, we think of the day ahead of us, do we say to ourselves, Today I'm going to correct a weakness or a problem that's become a pattern in my life, I'm going to focus more on growing today and focus a lot less on my little problems. Do we talk to God about our growth? Do we sincerely and fervently ask Him to show us where we need to change? That's one way in which we listen to the knocking at the door and then we open the door and we let Him in.

When we make a habit of humbly going to God in prayer and carefully studying the bible, a deep respect for what God has to say, we will be inspired. We'll be motivated to apply God's way of life more fully, we'll be more careful to identify the wrong and sinful thoughts and actions. When we do, God will bless us with even more spiritual growth, we'll have more righteousness, joy and peace, as we heard in the Feast film. We'll have more wisdom and more spiritual maturity; our lives will be much fuller in spite of the trials and challenges that will inevitably come.

Our final point today regarding our spiritual growth, is that we'll be rewarded for the effort that we put out in this life, for the work we do we'll be rewarded for our work and for our effort and labor. The reward for our work is not eternal life, eternal life is a gift, we do not and cannot earn it. We often mention that fact but I think it's good once in a while that we see proof of it in our bibles. Let's go to Ephesians 2:8. We sometimes are accused of believing and teaching that we earn salvation because we recognize that God expects us to work, to put out effort, that's a false accusation, we do not teach nor do we believe that we earn salvation, it is a gift.

Eph. 2:8 — For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God. Not of works lest anyone should boast...so eternal life is a gift, at the same time we're expected to work as we see in the next verse:

V. 10 — For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand and we should walk in them.

The reward we receive is not eternal life, eternal life is a gift. The reward that God gives us is ruler ship, its responsibility; it's opportunities in the kingdom of God, opportunities for service. With that understanding, that eternal life is a gift and not a reward, let's turn to Revelation 22:12 where we see here very plainly, very clearly that we are rewarded for our efforts, for our work. This verse, interestingly also tells us when we'll receive that reward.

Rev. 22:12 — "And behold...Christ is saying...I am coming quickly...there should always be a sense of urgency in a Christian's mind...and My reward is with Me to give to everyone according to his work.

According to his efforts during the time period that he or she is preparing for the kingdom of God. God looks forward to rewarding us. He knows our reward; He wants to give each one of us where we fit into the plan of His family. We can count on those rewards being exciting and interesting and fulfilling. Let's quickly notice one more parable in Luke 19, something we need to understand about being rewarded according to our works and efforts, this parable in Luke 19 teaches us that there are degrees of rewards, that not every reward is going to be the same or equal. The reward will depend upon the amount of effort and work we've expended, the quality of our work. This is the Parable of the Minas; the Authorized Version of the King James Version calls it the Parable of the Pounds. A mina was a certain amount of money — in the Parable of the Talents we read earlier, the servants were each given different amounts of money and the two servants who doubled their money each received ruler ship over many things, showing it that God reward fairly. But here in Luke 19 the three servants are all given the same amount of money, one mina. The first servant used his one mina to earn ten more minas.

Luke 19:16 — "Then came the first saying, 'Master, your mina has earned ten minas.' And he said, 'Well done good servant. Because you're faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.'" Again, the reward was ruler ship, in this case, ten cities.

V. 18 — "The second came saying, 'Master, your mina has earned five minas.' Likewise, he said to him, 'You also be over five cities.'"

It was a smaller reward than the first one received, the difference in the reward teaches that the Christians who work harder, who accomplish more will be given a greater reward than the person who puts out less effort. Some of God's people put out more effort and as a result God will give them more growth and they will also receive a greater reward. If you or I were to read the rest of this parable, we'd see once again that the servant who did not grow at all missed out and lost out on a fabulous opportunity to be rewarded. We should all value the opportunity we've been given right now to work in this lifetime, to grow spiritually; we should want to receive the greatest possible reward that God would ideally want to give us. That doesn't of course mean that our motivation should be selfish, that's not the point, we should want to grow in order to please and serve God, a reflection of how much we appreciate what He's done for us. But also so we can more effectively serve more people now and in the family of God.

The right kind of healthy growth is always a beautiful thing to see, I love to see things grow, whether we're talking about the physical realm or the spiritual realm. My wife and I have a plant in our kitchen window that's absolutely beautiful. It's a variety of primrose, the plant has a lot of dark green leaves and for contrast there are about twenty pink trumpet shaped blossoms on it. We were given this plant by a very good friend of ours, a little twelve year old boy who likes to propagate plants as one of his hobbies. When he first gave us the plant it had one green leaf in this whole clay pot full of dirt, one green leaf and beside it were two little shoots and we watched that plant through the winter and those little shoots kept getting bigger and bigger and more shoots kept coming up, we watched that plant develop until it became a whole pot full of green leaves and once it all filled up with green leaves, then the blossoms started coming. At one time it had as many as twenty or more blossoms on it. Every time a couple would shrivel up, Margie would cut them off and then more would appear and it has bloomed and continues to bloom and it's a beautiful plant. It's exciting to see it grow, especially when you saw it just a stub, just a little tiny green leaf, we didn't know whether it would make it or not but it not only made it, it flourished and continues to, it's beautiful and very enjoyable to see.

Can you imagine, on a similar scale, we got a lot of pleasure out of watching one little plant, can you imagine what kind of pleasure God gets by watching each one of us, all of us, grow spiritually? How thrilling that must be to Him. You know when this plant was growing and developing, every day we'd come down and look at it and see, what's it doing now? How's it doing? Can you imagine God doing something similar, every day kind of saying, how are they doing now, what's he doing now, what's she like now? I can imagine God doing that, watching His children grow and enjoying, taking a delight in seeing how the Church, how the people of God are growing in character. It's no wonder that He and Jesus Christ will be pleased to reward the spiritual growth that we experience. For our final scripture let's go to Ephesians 5:15. It's been said there's no such thing in anyone's life as an unimportant day. Now that's especially true for us, Christians, since every day, whether it's a good day for us or a bad day, it's an opportunity; it's a day and an opportunity to grow. Eph. 5:15 says:

Eph. 5:15 — See then that you walk circumspectly...in other words, be careful how you live...not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time...the New International Version says, making the most of every opportunity...because the days are evil.

Now that we're home from the Feast and we're settling into our routines, let's be sure that we continue to experience some of the excitement and encouragement we experienced at the Feast by continuing to grow spiritually every day.